Johann Franz Xaver Sterkel (1750-1817) Symphonies Op.35

[Alan Howe]

...in highly charged and appropriately HIP performances were released on dhm/Sony a couple of years ago:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=sterkel

They are billed as Op.35, Nos.1 (in D) and 2 (in B flat) and feature some distinctly proto-Beethovenian features - e.g. driving rhythms and surprising harmonic twists. They apparently date from the early 1790s and are predominantly late-classical in spirit, but, as with many compositions from this period, there are clear signs of what was to come.

[eschiss1]

Thanks!

I like the works by Sterkel I've skimmed on IMSLP (given skim, anyway) , have planned to listen to the few that have been recorded (and hope more will be ) He wrote a fair amount of chamber music and liturgical music too, it seems.

[Alan Howe]

According to Wikipedia there are 24 symphonies!

Here's a link to a complete list of compositions posted at the Sterkel Society's website:
http://www.sterkel-gesellschaft.org/download/Sterkel-werkverzeichnis-nummeriert.pdf

[Alan Howe]

The latest piece on the CD I mentioned is actually Sterkel's Overture No.2 which is an absolutely superb, brilliantly virtuosic piece, clearly proleptic of 'things to come'.

[edurban]

Fired by Alan's enthusiasm, I ordered this disc, and it's terrific.  What a wonderful composer Sterkel is: inventive, inspired, a fine tunesmith,  master of the orchestra... he completely lives up to Beethoven's estime.  Great performances, too.  I immediately ordered the only other Sterkel disc I could find... Slovakian performances of his piano concerto #2 and what I hope is a different D Major symphony.  Thanks, more Sterkel, please!           

[Alan Howe]

That's good to know. May I urge anyone who knows Sterkel to try the new cpo CD of symphonies by Brandl...?>>
http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,6632.0.html

[Aderichleau]

You can listen to Sterkel's first Piano Concerto courtesy of YouTube, featuring the Zagreb Chamber Orchestra and Martin Lutz, with rather elegant playing from Lotte Jekéli. The recording seems to have been originally released in 1990 on the German label, RBM Musikproduktion, and may still be available for purchase on their website, coupled with a Mozart concerto.